2019–20 EFL Trophy

• 48 clubs from League One and League Two. • 16 invited Category One Academy teams. • Expelled clubs were automatically eliminated from the tournament. • Category One teams relegated to League One missed out on having academies participate in the following tournament. ==Eligibility criteria for players==

;For EFL clubs • Minimum of four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player will be one who meets any of the following requirements: • Any player who started the previous or following first-team fixture. • Any player who is in the top 10 players at the club, who have made the most starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions that season. • Any player with 40 or more first-team appearances in their career. • Any player on loan from a Premier League club or any EFL Category One Academy club. • A club can play any eligible goalkeeper in the competition ;For invited teams • Minimum of six players in the starting line-up who played at under-21 level, as at 30 June 2019. • Teams may only include two players on the team sheet who are over the age of 21 and have made forty or more senior appearances, as at 30 June 2019. • A senior appearance will be defined as having played in a professional first-team fixture. A non-playing substitute does not count. ==Competition format==

;Group stage • Sixteen groups of 4 teams would be organised on a regionalised basis. • All groups would include one invited club. • All clubs would play each other once, either home or away (Academies play all group matches away from home). • Clubs would be awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. • In the event of a drawn game (after 90 minutes), a penalty shootout would be held with the winning team earning an additional point. • Clubs expelled from the EFL will be knocked out of the tournament automatically. • The top two teams would progress to the Knockout Stage. ;Knockout stage • Round 2 and 3 of the competition will be drawn on a regionalised basis. • In Round 2, the group winners shall be seeded and the group runners-up shall be unseeded in the draw. • In Round 2, teams who played in the same group as each other in the Group Stage shall keep apart from each other. ==Group stage==

Northern Section Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H Southern Section Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H ==Round 2==

Northern Section Southern Section ==Round 3==

Northern Section Southern Section ==Quarter-finals==